Lord Goldsmith banned from driving after 11 speeding offences

Lord Goldsmith has been banned from driving after he was caught speeding 11 times in less than two years.

The Conservative peer was banned for 12 months and ordered to pay £8,200 at Westminster magistrates’ court on Monday.

The 49-year-old avoided disqualification but was handed fixed penalty fines and 12 points on his licence over four speeding incidents between May 2022 and March 2023.

After avoiding the ban, Zac Goldsmith was caught driving above the speed limit another seven times between May to December last year.

District Judge Daniel Sternberg sentenced Goldsmith to fines totalling £5,500 for the latest seven offences, plus a £2,000 victim surcharge and costs of £700, and he disqualified him from driving for the next 12 months.

Lord Goldsmith was caught driving on Chelsea Embankment at 29mph on April 27, despite the road having a speed limit of 20mph, the court heard.

Almost three months later, on July 18, he exceeded another 20mph limit by travelling at 28mph on Bayswater Road near Kensington Gardens.

The Tory peer was also found guilty of two offences on the same road, the A316 in Twickenham, which has a speed limit of 40mph and he exceeded by 7mph on August 3.

He was also caught driving at 75mph in a temporary 50mph limit on the M4 on Sept 30.

On Nov 10 was caught travelling at 46mph in a 40mph zone in Feltham, west London. He was also found to be travelling at 62mph in a 50pmh zone on the M25 on Dec 14.

The judge told the court that speeding puts both offending drivers “and all other road users at risk”, adding that speeding “generates more harmful emissions”.

Lord Goldsmith was banned from driving for two months in January after he was caught speeding four times last year.

In July 2014, Goldsmith was also disqualified for a total of six months after receiving three speeding tickets in three months.

He was caught breaking the speed limit in his Toyota Hybrid on two consecutive days in December 2013, while also being caught speeding in Richmond Park – his constituency at the time – the following February, driving at 39mph in a 30mph zone.

In an interview during his unsuccessful 2016 London mayoral campaign, Lord Goldsmith had indicated his support for the 20pmh zones. The policy has since been introduced by Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London.